THE RED-FOOTED FALCON 149 
being appropriated. The eggs are from four to six in number, differing only from 
those of the Kestrel in being a little smaller in size; in general, being of a 
whitish ground colour, spotted and blotched with red, while others are as richly 
marked with dark purple red upon a reddish ground as the handsome varieties of 
the Kestrel; they measure from 1°6 to 1°25 inches, by from 1°2 to 1 inch. In a 
large collection of eggs, containing numerous clutches of all the smaller British 
Falconide, it will be found that the eggs of the Hobby, Red-footed Falcon, Merlin, 
and Kestrel run so closely together in their varieties, that unless they were all 
properly marked it would be quite impossible to separate them, and to assign 
them to their proper owners, supposing they became by any chance mixed; the 
same remark has already been made respecting the eggs of the Kites and 
Buzzards. 
Lord Lilford writes of the Red-footed Falcons as observed by him in Corfu: 
“They seemed to spend the hot hours of the day perched in small clusters on 
the tall cypresses and few poplars that diversify the lovely scenery of the island ; 
as the day waned these birds might be observed hovering and circling in every 
direction at a moderate height over the fields and olive-groves, showing a decided 
predilection for the neighbourhood of streams or ponds of fresh water. They had 
no fear whatever of human beings, and frequently flew past or hovered within 
half a gun shot of us as we sat or stood perfectly unconcealed.” 
The Red-footed Falcon captures its food in the air, and also on the ground, 
on which it runs with remarkable ease and speed. In its habits it more closely 
resembles the Kestrel than the Hobby or Merlin, and does not possess the swift- 
ness of flight of those birds. Besides insects it also feeds upon mice and lizards. 
The adult male is all over a dark lead colour, which is somewhat lighter on 
the wings, the quills being silvery grey above, and black beneath; the tail black; 
belly, thighs, and under tail-coverts rich chestnut; cere and space round the eyes 
orange red; irides hazel; bill orange at base, dark horn colour at tip; legs and 
toes brownish red; claws yellowish white; length 113 inches. 
The female is much lighter in colour than the male, having the head, nape, 
and under parts uniform dull chestnut, without spots, somewhat paler on the 
throat; feathers round the eyes dark brown; back and tail slate grey, each feather 
broadly barred with darker grey: the wings are not so silvery grey as in the 
male, they are chestnut beneath, and the quills are broadly barred with white on 
the inner web: length 12 inches. 
Young birds have the nape and under parts pale buff, the former obscurely 
and the latter broadly streaked with brown; upper parts slate brown, barred with 
rufous: bill and cere horn colour; legs and toes paler than in adults: tail barred 
Vor. III 2A 
